J.J. Watt and Tua Tagovailoa serve up Paramount+’s NFL on CBS coverage in fast-food spoofs

Paramount+ can’t stop talking about its live NFL coverage. Seriously, the streamer’s two new ads hardly say anything beyond “The NFL on CBS streams live on Paramount+.” For the third year in a row, Paramount+ is highlighting its live coverage of local NFL games and CBS’s Sunday afternoon matches with a set of overly repetitive spokespeople disrupting the lives of everyone they encounter. The two spots star J.J. Watt, the former Houston Texans defensive end and current “NFL Today” analyst, and Tua Tagovailoa, the Miami Dolphins quarterback, with brief appearances by TikTok influencer Leenda Dong. “We know that awareness of where to stream sports and the NFL is low across the board in the industry,” said Domenic DiMeglio, chief marketing officer and chief data officer at Paramount Streaming. As with its long-running Paramount Mountain campaign, DiMeglio said Paramount+ differentiates itself from competitors that are also touting live sports content by pairing ads showcasing highlight reels and basic offerings with broad brand-building creative. Also read: Paramount’s new self-serve ad platform aims to bring smaller marketers to TV Similar to Paramount+’s spots showing gaggles of celebrities atop a snowy peak, the “NFL on CBS Streams Live on Paramount+” campaign drives brand awareness through stars and comedy. But it’s different in that “we’re asking these spots to do more work in terms of helping drive linkage [between the NFL and Paramount+] as well as people signing up and watching,” said DiMeglio. In the first spot (above), patrons of a fictional Paramount+ fast-food restaurant just want to be fed, but when one guest tries to order a cheeseburger, Watt records the order as “one NFL on CBS Streams Live on Paramount+.” The same miscommunication occurs when the hungry visitor attempts to order french fries. (To Watts’ credit, the patron had clearly not read the restaurant’s menu, which only offers “the NFL on CBS streams live on Paramount+.”) The second spot sports a similar joke, but this time adding in a play on Watt’s and Tagovailoa’s names. Surely desperate to eat, the same guest from the first spot orders a #1, which the footballers confuse for Tagovailoa’s jersey number. When another patron requests a #2, Tagovailoa thinks she’s saying “Tua,” leading to a “Rocky Horror”-esque cycle of confused name shouting. The campaign, created with agency The Vault and in partnership with CBS and the NFL, will begin running Aug. 20 across linear, digital, social and out-of-home. Live sports have become a key differentiator for streamers as they vie for subscribers, and Paramount+’s NFL content has been the top driver of subscriptions for the platform since it launched in 2021, according to the company. Live sports also serve as a key introduction, as those who sign up to Paramount+ for sports end up spending 90% of their time watching non-sports content on the platform. Since 2022, when Paramount+ first advertised live NFL games with its repetition joke, awareness has grown 4.5 times, and last year’s NFL season was Paramount+’s most-watched. The streamer reported double-digit growth in households watching live NFL games, minutes watched and average audience. DiMeglio said tapping into the full spectrum of media channels has been a necessity for the success of Paramount+’s marketing in prioritizing consumer conversions, grabbing mass attention on linear TV, being shareable on social media and being clickable on CTV and other digital platforms to sign up. Alongside the campaign, Paramount+ will also offer a 50% discount on 12-month subscriptions. “Especially in today's times with inflation and rising prices of streaming services, one of the most important things we have to do is continue to prove value to the consumer,” DiMeglio said. “That includes a broad offering with top-tier content that checks a lot of boxes across sports, blockbuster movies, tentpole original series and a great library to round it all out.” More Creativity coverage from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

J.J. Watt and Tua Tagovailoa serve up Paramount+’s NFL on CBS coverage in fast-food spoofs

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